Re: advantages of forth over other languages

On May 12, 4:06 am, Robert Spykerman <robert.spyker...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
> On May 4, 6:06 am, Alex McDonald <b...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> > On May 3, 6:43 pm, John Doty <j...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > > In my experience it's barriers in *programmers'* minds. I see
powerful
> > > evidence that that barrier exists in *your* mind, but you are blind
to
> > > it. It does not exist in mine. If a program is the right solution,
I'll
> > > write a program. But I might also compute a logarithm with a diode
(what
> > > fraction of programmers would ever consider that alternative?).
>
> > A very small fraction. I've often advocated this kind of lateral
> > thinking to colleagues. I say to them, why write a complex program to
> > do logs when there are alternatives like a slide rule smeared with
> > some raspberry jam? I keep a number of these small one ****tion jars in
> > my top drawer, but none of my colleagues ever has any.  How
> > shortsighted is that?
>
> Ok, I'm really curious, you got me baited. I have to ask:
>
> Tell me about slide rules and raspberry jam, is there some great
> secret I am not aware of?
>
> I didn't grow up in the era of slide rules but I've got a perfectly
> good one that does logs perfectly well without the aid of jam in any
> shape or form.
>
> Is your slide rule so well worn that you need raspberry jam to keep it
> from slipping? :P
>
> > Alex McDonald
>
> Robert Spykerman

I just don't find many programmers that use slide rules, raspberry jam
or diodes to work out logs. John Passaniti got to the nub of it when
he said;

<quote>
That's a painfully stupid question because it ignores both the domain
the programmer works in and their ability to affect the system.  So if
we're talking about a database programmer or a programmer writing
scripts to automate financial calculations in Excel, chances are their
training and experience wouldn't lead them to an analog solution.  But
even if they did have that background, what good would it be?  Where
exactly would they stick the diode in MySQL or Excel to act as a
logarithm coprocessor?  Duh.
</quote>

Quite. My poor attempt at humour was to point out that there may be a
solution domain for jam and diodes, but most programmers have a
limited supply of both. And slide rules are in scarce supply too.

--
Regards
Alex McDonald